Palmer man who lit pet ferrets on fire gets prison

Palmer resident also must pay more than $10,000 for veterinary care for his niece's pets.

William Dickerson of Palmer Township will spend time in jail for setting… (FILE PHOTO, THE MORNING…)

February 04, 2014|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

A Palmer Township man who doused three pet ferrets with gasoline and set them ablaze has more to worry about than just the one to two months he was ordered to serve in Northampton County Prison.

William A. Dickerson will also be on the hook for the thousands of dollars in veterinarian bills for his niece's maimed animals — and one of them still has a corrective surgery to undergo at a University of Pennsylvania veterinarian hospital that is expected to cost between $2,000 and $2,500.

On top of his jail sentence and two years of probation, the 64-year-old Dickerson will end up paying more than $12,000 in restitution, and it could have been worse: The vet the three ferrets were taken to actually billed nearly $24,000, but agreed to cut the charge to just $10,000, Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Lewis Fallenstein said.

"This was a senseless and heinous act where, unfortunately, three animals were injured, very severely," Fallenstein told Judge Leonard Zito at Tuesday's sentencing.

On Aug. 5, police were called to Dickerson's Tatamy Road home by his wife, Cynthia Dickerson, who said the ferrets were on fire and her husband, who had torched them, was drunk, according to court records.

Officers arrived to find a wire cage in the yard containing a puddle of fluid that was on fire and a partially melted plastic water bottle, police said.

A 5-gallon plastic gas can was near the cage. One ferret was "stumbling around slowly" outside and two others were under a set of wooden steps, police said. All were severely burned.

In December, Dickerson pleaded guilty to three counts of animal cruelty and one each of dangerous burning, terroristic threats and criminal mischief. His defense said he is a Vietnam War veteran who was suffering from a mental health crisis when he burned the ferrets.

Dickerson's lawyer, Philip Lauer, offered no reason Tuesday for what happened, but said his client immediately checked himself into a hospital afterward. Lauer said Dickerson continues to be in treatment, and has already paid nearly $10,000 of the ferrets' bills.

Dickerson told Zito he is working on himself and wants to be a better citizen.

"I wish I could change what happened in the past," said Dickerson, who has no prior record.

"To be quite frank, it scared the hell out of me," Dickerson said of the incident.

Dickerson's niece, Shannon Cahill, and her boyfriend, Travis Laubach, said one of the ferrets remains at the vet's office because of its injuries. They said the ferrets required medication five to six times a day, and had to have their bandages changed twice a day.

"We are still continually caring for them," Laubach said. "One of them is getting steroids now."

Zito called the case unusual, not just for the animal cruelty, but for what kind of animal it was directed against. He said he concluded a prison term was needed, if a "modest" one, with Dickerson led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

"They are domestic animals. They are your pets," Zito said to Cahill and Laubach. "And they were unfortunately harmed by the offensive conduct of Mr. Dickerson."